HAIL, 26 October 2007 — Custodian of Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has approved a decision to allocate 80 million square meters of land, owned by the Ministry of the Defense and Aviation, to people in the Hail region who do not own their own homes, reported the Al-Eqtisadiah newspaper.
Following approval from the king, Crown Prince Sultan, minister of defense and aviation, announced that the land would be distributed soon, Hail Gov. Prince Saud ibn Abdul Mohsen, chairman of the Higher Authority for Hail Development, said.
Prince Saud was speaking at a weekly meeting of provincial officials and local citizens at the Oja Palace in Hail on Tuesday. “While the priority for the land grant will be given to people without houses, teachers at Hail University would be given 4 million square meters. Public utilities and government offices would also get a certain portion of land,” Prince Saud said.
The land — which is located close to the Prince Abdul Aziz ibn Musaed Economic City, Hail University, a local railway line, and the Hail-Jouf Expressway — lies to the north of Hail city.
The mayor’s office in the region will distribute the land according to a criteria fixed by a committee set up to draw up a distribution strategy. The committee includes representatives from the King Abdullah Housing Foundation, the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs, the Higher Authority for Development of Hail and the Ministry of Social Affairs. Prince Saud said the committee’s next meeting would chalk out a strategy for distribution.
The prince affirmed that the region’s development authority would strive its best to implement the royal decree, while working in conjunction with the Ministry of Defense and Aviation, the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs, the Interior Ministry, and the Ministry of Justice and Finance.
The prince also said that the land distribution committee would take necessary steps to make the area a modern residential city with proper amenities and utilities.
